When cops caught up with them, the three were still carrying the bloody knives they used to stab their victim a dozen times, according to those sources.

Police initially thought the 50-year-old victim wouldn't survive, but none of his internal organs were punctured in the attack, sources said.

The suspects, who hail from Brooklyn but have ties to Staten Island, began their crime spree in Manhattan as a snowstorm raged Thursday night into Friday morning, the sources noted.

They are identified in court papers as Kenneth Young, 21, who also goes by the name Keith Young; Eric Peterson, 20, and Christopher Daniels, 17. At least one has ties to the Crips street gang, police sources said.

The trio is suspected of committing one robbery in Chinatown's 5th Precinct and two more in Lower Manhattan's 1st Precinct, before coming to the Island to continue their crime spree, those sources said.  

Once here, authorities allege, they flashed a knife at a 29-year-old male at the Grasmere train station at about 1:30 a.m., and took the victim's backpack, which held his phone, music player and cash.

They then headed to Hylan Boulevard, and at about 1:55 a.m., saw the victim standing by his food cart, at the corner of Hylan and Old Town Road, authorities allege.

They rushed and robbed him, knocking him to the ground and stabbing him repeatedly with two knives and a boxcutter, police sources said.

After taking the victim's cash, the three fled, but they didn't know the neighborhood well and were caught by patrolling police officers, one NYPD source said.

"They didn't know where to run," the source said.

The three suspects each face a single count of second-degree attempted murder and first-degree assault, as well as multiple counts of first-degree robbery, according to information from District Attorney Daniel Donovan's office.

Police have linked Peterson -- who also goes by the name Steve Anderson -- to another violent mugging on the Island last month.

On Dec. 20, at about 1:40 a.m., Peterson and an accomplice approached a male victim on the 1100 block of Bay Street, near Virginia Avenue, in Rosebank. There, police allege, the pair knocked him to the ground, slashed his back and face with a box cutter, and stole his phone and cash.

Peterson is being held on $500,000 bail, Young and Daniels on $150,000.